Thursday, December 10, 2009

Christmas Cupcakes

Seeing it is December 9 already, I thought it was about time I posted something Christmassy. I made these cupcakes last week for a client function. I made about 60 of them. The cupcake recipe came from the Crabapple bakery Cook Book and was spicy mocha cupcakes. I did scale down the amount of coffee in them – in fact I wondered if ¼ c of instant coffee powder was a mistake in the recipe? The cupcakes had a lovely density to them that you would associate with gingerbread. They were subtly spiced and also had melted chocolate in them. They kept well too – I made them in Sunday and they still tasted ok (although probably not at their best!) by Wednesday (the function was on Tuesday).

The icing I simply rolled fondant. This gives a lovely professional looking finish. Some people don’t like the taste of fondant, but rolled relatively thinly it’s not too sweet. I cut out fondant stars and Christmas trees using cutters, and sprinkled them with coloured sugar for the little cake toppers. I used lightly beaten eggwhite to adhere the sprinkles. Another way of decorating these cupcakes which would look quite cool would be to ice them with a simple white glace icing and then pop a red or green giant pebble on top.

• Stir chocolate into hot coffee mixture and stir until smooth• Cream butter and sugar• Beat in eggs, one at a time• Stir in coffee mixture and vanilla• Stir in dry ingredients alternately with the sour cream• Spoon into cupcake cases and bake at 200c for 15-18 minutes

Hallo TammyI am from the Netherlands. Past year I have visited New Zealand and tasted tan slices. In the Netherlands we don't have recipes for tan slices. Can you put a recipe on your blog because I want to make them for christmas. I only found your chocolate tan slice on your blog but you wrote that they were not the best.

Hallo TammyI would like to make tan slices because I tasted them last year in New Zealand. In the Netherlands, where I live, we don't have recipes for tan slice. Can you put the simple recipe on your blog for me?

About me

I am a Mum to my gorgeous wee baby boy Harry, a wife to my lovely husband, full time partner in my law firm and baker. I love reading other people's blogs and have always had aspirations to write a cook book, so hopefully this blog will satisfy some of that desire!